


Where Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean

by Psaiki



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Darcy Lewis, Civil War, Darcy Lewis is Tony Stark's Daughter, F/M, Hydra (Marvel), Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 14:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6757957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Psaiki/pseuds/Psaiki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy doesn't mean to get in the middle of Tony and Steve.  She also doesn't mean to fall in love with trouble with a metal arm.  If she even makes it that far.  Civil War is upon us.  And how many are going to get caught in the crossfire?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The title is a line from the prologue of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off an idea I had after watching the very first trailer to Captain America: Civil War. I suddenly just pictured Darcy being all dramatic and like, "But Daddy! I love him!" And a fic was born. Which is less teenage drama and more adult pain. Again, though, it is based off of the very first trailer and not any after that. I made inferences and came up with ideas just by watching that trailer over and over again. Which is why you will not see Spidey (so sorry) and why T'Challa doesn't have a part. We had no idea where Spidey would show up at that time and who's side the Black Panther was going to be on. Thus, this is not movie compliant. Please enjoy!

Darcy cinches her backpack tighter before pushing the tattered window shade to the side and hoisting herself onto the frame. She glances back at her partner one more time, she waits for his nod, and then she jumps. As soon as her feet hit the ground, the young woman is off running. Darcy doesn’t bother to check back anymore, she knows he is on her like a shadow, but she keeps her pace even in order to keep herself that much more alert. 

It isn’t until they are three blocks away that their pursuers start to catch up. Since she’s somewhat in the lead, Darcy maneuvers towards the outskirts of the small town they were hiding in. Hopefully she is heading to someplace less populated, or, even, deserted. 

She manages to get them away from insight people when the shooting begins.

This time, she chances a look back. Yep. Just what she expected. Grim determination on her shadow’s face. And jack-booted thugs with crazy in their eyes.

“Find us some cover,” her partner says; and she can’t help but notice how he’s switched to running directly behind her as some sort of shield.

Darcy quickly assesses the path in front of her and where it leads before she ultimately decides to hang a swift right. She finds a big and large, abandoned factory to hide in. Rusted, heaps of forgotten machinery provide just the cover her friend had in mind.

The two of them, now in the building and next to one another, hustle to shut and barricade the door. 

“There’s going to be more than one entrance to this place,” Darcy’s male companion states. “Let’s find them and lock them tight. Then we take the high ground-”

“And shoot our way out,” Darcy finishes for him.

Together, they dash into the dark.

Once again, Darcy’s in the lead when they make it to an emergency maintenance exit, which a couple of their pursuers locate at the same time. She manages to jump back just in time so that she misses the door banging open. But their first guy isn’t quick enough, and she strikes out with her taser to take him down. Her partner follows, just as aggressive, if not more so, so that he can end their admittance with a series of rapid punches and powerful kicks. When the bodies fall on the inside of the exit, the two victors drag them aside to close the final door.

They head back down the hallway and into an open area with one large machine in the center of it.

Darcy takes a look around.

“It’s as good a place as any to make our next plan,” she comments, as she spots the other hallway on the opposite side of the room. Then she puts her back to the many open walkways in the wall behind her. Her partner sets down his pack.

“High ground. Shoot our way out.”

“Okay. That is not a full plan. That is an outline of a plan. It’s just brief enough and just macho enough it could be the tagline to a Liam Neeson movie. I’m looking for the full Ocean’s Eleven script.”

Her answer is a look. One she’s recently become pretty apt at deciphering.

“Forget the pop culture references. You know it’s how I hold back hysteria. And you know I know you’ll never understand them. Just tell me you have more concrete ideas on how to get us out of here.”

“I don’t see you coming up with anything.”

This time, she glares at him.

He’s immune though, so she takes another chance to look around. Maybe she does have some ideas.

“We could turn some of this stuff on. Make some loud noises. Spook them a bit.”

“It wouldn’t slow them down much.”

“But it could?” she inquires, making her way to the machine sitting in the center of the room.

“Darcy, don’t.”

Darcy walks around to the back of the machine, where she finds the plug. After plugging it back in, she flips the switch. Nothing happens.

“Huh. Must have cut off the power to this part of the town. Funny, I thought I saw that Exit sign glowing earlier.”

“Well then, don’t mess with it anymore. Let’s get back to my plan.”

But Darcy ignores him as he continues to mess with the stuff in his pack. Definitely weapons, if experience serves. She flips the switch a couple of more times. Suddenly, the machine jumps to life.

“What? Can’t hear you over the sound of my plan,” Darcy smirks over the loud noise of the two metal clamps coming together and then slamming apart.

The noise does more to distract her though, as the enemy she had tased is now back up and sneaking up behind her.

“Darcy! Look out!” 

She turns, her eyes go wide. Her partner pushes her out of the way with his left arm, while shooting with his right. The enemy goes down. But the danger isn’t over.

The snapping machine catches on his outstretched arm and starts to clamp down hard.

“Bucky!” Darcy cries. She quickly goes for the plug and pulls with a forceful yank.

The machine stops closing and the young woman runs back to his side. Wet tears gather in the corners of her eyes when she sees that the clamps are stuck, holding his metal arm trapped.

“I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have--I should have listened. Are you okay?”

“I will be. Once you get me out of this thing.”

She looks into his eyes for the truth. She starts to calm down. “Okay. Let me just…” Darcy goes for the switch, but she hears another noise. Coming from the far end of the factory. “They’ve made it in,” she whispers.

He looks towards the hallway they had entered in. “We don’t have much time. Not enough to mess with this. You need to get out of here, Darcy.” 

“There is no way I am leaving you here like this. I will not let HYDRA get you again.”

The two pairs of blue eyes meet as silence hovers.

“It’s not a big group. I can fight them off. Even with one hand. But I can’t do it with you here, getting in the way.”

“So now I’m in the way, huh?”

“You know that’s not what I meant, Doll.”

She tries to get her words out so that he can hear them.

More clamoring comes from the pack headed their way.

Darcy starts to uncinch her backpack, then pulls it off her shoulders. She rummages through the thing rapidly. In a matter of seconds, she has a maroon shirt, tattered brown hoodie, charcoal jacket, and sunglasses on. She holds a ballcap in her hands as well. Darcy uses the cap to fold up half her hair and tuck with the cap on top.

“I’m going to lead them away. You get yourself out of this thing. When I’ve managed to lose them, we’ll meet back up.”

“They’ll never believe it. And even if they do, you’ll never get away from them,” he counters.

“I can. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s suddenly disappearing. You have to trust me.”

Silence again. Until their enemies noises get closer.

Bucky looks away for a few seconds. “You’ll meet back up with me?” His eyes are back.

“It’s a date,” Darcy smiles. “You take care of yourself, Barnes.”

Darcy runs.  
_______________________________

Just over twenty-seven nerve-wracking hours later, Darcy hears a knock on her motel room door. She takes a quick look out of the peephole and then opens the door. Bucky steps in, pushes her aside, and bolts the door shut behind him. While she goes back to the bed she was perched on the edge of just seconds ago, Bucky throws his bag on the other bed.

“How’s your arm?” Darcy asks with unveiled concern.

“It still works,” is his reply. He looks down to meet her eyes. “How’d you get them off your tail?”

Darcy smiles and waves her hands around in a ‘this and that’ gesture. Then her eyes go back to the TV. She has the news on and something is keeping her riveted. “You can take a shower, if you want,” she throws over her shoulder.

When Bucky doesn’t move, something else enters the room. The young woman senses the sudden tension; however, she does not address it first.

“Steve was there,” the stoic man offers out of the blue. “At the factory. He’s the one who got my arm free.”

The response he gets is not the one he expected. Darcy sighs. “I know. He’s on the news. And so are the backup HYDRA goons who chased him. Is he why you’re back here? He let you go and then fought them off so local authorities wouldn’t catch wind of you?” She is back to watching him intensely. “So what are you going to do now?”

“It’s not me, it’s you. You should go back to New York.”

“I told you, I’m not running away.”

“But that’s all we’ve been doing. Is running.”

“It’s not all; we’ve been gathering info too. And occasionally bringing the fight to them. I mean, come on, Bucky! We’ve destroyed HYDRA bases together!”

“I know, Doll.”

“So come with me. You’ve come so far. Steve wants you back…” but with one look, she knows that’s not going to happen. “But you’re still not ready to go back. Then why send me alone?”

“You can keep an eye on my boy. And I just need a little bit more time.”

“You want me to spy on him for you?”

“No. Just make sure that Falcon buddy of his is taking care of Stevie’s mental health.”

“I’m more worried about yours.”

This time, Bucky sighs. “Don’t, Doll. Worry about yourself. These men are getting bigger and less tactical. For them, it’s now all or nothing. If you’re in New York, you’re not a target. They still don’t know you’re with me. You leave now, we keep it that way.”

“You really want me gone?” Darcy doesn’t want to, but she keeps herself from hiding blue eyes behind brown hair.

“I do.”

The silence returns. The tension negatively charges the room. And Darcy caves.

“Fine,” she bites out.

Darcy jumps off the bed and heads into the bathroom. She starts shoving things into her travel bag before coming back out to grab the rest of her stuff and shoving them into her backpack. She puts her hood back up as she crosses in front of the TV. 

Darcy doesn’t look back to him, still standing next to the other bed, when she reaches the door.

“It’s not like I asked to be the kickass Robin to your brooding Batman anyway.” She slams the door behind her when she finally walks away.

_____________________________

There is a large flurry of activity going on at the Avenger’s facility when Darcy arrives. She knows that on some level, activity is normal, but this level seems abnormally high. Rather than take the direct route upstairs, Darcy decides to go where the action is. She passes through a large open area, and that’s where a lot of guys in black are moving about. Suddenly, she notices Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson at the center of it all. But they don’t look to be in charge. In fact, they seem to be watching in resignation as the Captain’s shield goes by in the arms of a random man in black. 

Time to find the man with answers.

Ogling curiosity at bay for the moment, the young woman zigzags through corridors and up different flights of stairs toward her goal. She only runs into a couple more of the random men in black, the rest are SI employees handpicked for duty at the Avenger’s facility. They know her face (and likely her background and Avenger’s liaison profile) and ignore her passing. She tries to smile anyway. For appearances. 

Eventually she reaches his office, which is less than an office and more a lab, but is also less lab than is his normal lab, as he still bases most of his research at home.

Tony, standing behind a hologram, is more than happy to see her. “Darcy! You’re back.” Scrapping the image before him, he crumbles it up and tosses it behind him; his view of Darcy is unobstructed. “I haven’t seen you since-”

She smiles as she finishes for him, “Since you first opened this place.”

“Now, has it really been that long?”

“Feels like a whole lifetime ago.”

He smirks.

“Come here, Kiddo. Give your old man a hug.”

Darcy gladly goes into her father’s arms. She realizes she feels less at home in them than she used to, but no less warm and comforted. Maybe she is just growing up. Or maybe there is just less metal than she expected.

“So,” she jumps right back in stepping back, “what’s going on here? Those look like government thugs on your doorstep. And it also looks like they have it out for Captain America and the Falcon. I thought Steve was their bald-eagle whispering hero?”

Tony drops the jovial side of himself and hardens his expression. A visage that makes him just as much Iron Man as it does Tony Stark. “The good Captain messed up. Did something he shouldn’t have, and now people are paying the price.”

“Messed up? Don’t you mean he stopped HYDRA from killing his friend, and thus, was then too distracted by the stopping of said HYDRA to go after his friend when he ran away from being killed by, um, HYDRA?”  
“No. What he did was let an assassin with a metal arm and a thousand kills to his name escape.”

Darcy, daughter of Tony Stark, rolls her eyes. “It’s just an arm.”

“He is a mechanical monster.”

“They said the same thing about you, before and after you had an arc reactor for a heart.”

“The Winter Soldier is a weapon. I made them; there’s a difference.”

“Exactly! He didn’t have a choice! You did! He was used and made that way. Now that he’s Bucky, by the way, he gets a choice again.” She ends her mini-rant with a huff. The two brunettes share the same stubborn set to their jaws as they assess one another and where the conclusion of this ‘discussion’ is going to land.

Tony is the first to break, both weak to his daughter and strong to his need to get the last word.

“People like that don’t change, Darcy.”

But Darcy, having something of her mother in her that occasionally gets out, can see that Tony Stark is out of his element. “You did,” is her reply.

And he has to believe her. For now.

Time to deflect.

“Should I even ask how you know all about the Captain’s recent exploits? What exactly have you and Foster been up to?”

Darcy takes the shift in conversational topic for what she can.

“Jane’s actually been keeping out of trouble lately. If, umm, her tales are to be believed.”

“So then what have you been up to?” Tony had noticed her subtle exclusion of herself in reference to Jane.

Here’s where his daughter gets a little reluctant to participate in the conversation. But she eventually caves, as he did before. She’s got something to say, if her body language is any indication.

“Dad...there’s actually something I have to tell you. Sort of why I’m here, now.”

“Sir,” the feminine voice from thin air interrupts.

“What is it, FRIDAY?”

“Captain Rogers has requested to meet with you before your group meeting with General Ross.”

“Thanks. Let him know I’m on my way.” Tony, not having broken eye-contact with his daughter, even while speaking to his AI, uncrosses his arms and stands up straighter. “Sorry to do this to you, but can it wait, Darcy? Or maybe you can tell me on the way to meet Steve. Because I’m not sure if Cap will like it much if I’m late. Might even get his disapproving look, patent pending.”

Internally, Darcy breathes a sigh of relief. She has slowly begun to realize how serious this stuff with Steve is, and she is becoming less and less sure about revealing her part in it all. Especially to her father. She knows it can wait for now, but not for much longer. She’s currently witnessing how well these secrets are going with her father’s feelings.

“Yeah Dad. It can wait. But I’ll still walk you to your meeting. If that’s okay?”

“Sure it is, kid. You’ll keep me on time. Steve’ll be so happy.” he smirks

Darcy rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and smiles. “Whatever. Keep me out of your riv-bro-ry.”

Rather than stick around the tense atmosphere that always seems to develop when Captain America meets Iron Man, Darcy waves quickly to Steve when she drops her father off. Then she skidaddles for parts unknown.

Parts unknown are actually parts easily guessed if they know anything about a Stark. Darcy goes to where the coffee is.

What she finds, is a span of dark skin being covered by mean-spirited cloth. Said owner of the delicious skin turns when he hears the snap of Darcy taking his photo, as he’s half-dressed.

“Sam, Sam, Sam. The phrase is take it off. Not put it on.”

“If that ends up on Facebook, not just I, but Pepper will kill you.”

“Oh, this one’s for my personal collection, Hotwings.”

Sam finishes straightening the shirt he’s just put on, eyeing Darcy for anymore pictures as he does. But he smiles warmly at her when she just grins and puts the phone away.

“It’s good to see you, Darcy.”

“You too, Sam. Any and all of you.” If she can’t flirt with the Falcon, what can she do?

He takes it in stride. “I’m guessing you’re not here just to oggle.”

Darcy points to the fancy coffee machine perched on the counter just behind him. He turns to look. “What a coincidence,” he says. “I was just about to tackle this beast myself.”

“Want any help?”

“Appreciate it.”

_________________________

“They’re taking it from you. Not me, Cap.”

“Say what you want, Tony, but what I see is my shield torn apart and put back together in your lab. And we both know what ends up coming out of there.”

“Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth.”

“Are we interrupting something?” From the doorway of the glass room, Darcy balances her tray perfectly as her eyes bounce from one one Avenger to the other and back again.

Beside her, also holding something, Sam Wilson verbally ignores whatever just got paused. “I grabbed you a clean shirt, Steve. That one has helicopter fuel on it. Get changed so we can meet General Ross.” Then the Falcon walks away.

Steve glares some more at Tony, but eventually rises stiffly and follows his partner down the hall.

Darcy waits until the two men are out of sight before she speaks again. “You know, I don’t think restraining orders work the same way with superheroes as they do with regular people.”

“What? You don’t think I can take him?”

“Please, if I can taze a god, anything can happen. Though, we should hold off on any further testing.”

“No Foster here to observe.”

“No. No Pep here to ground you.”

Tony chuckles. “I should resent that, but I can hardly hide the truth anymore, now can I? Come on, walk me to my next meeting.” Together, the leave the same way Steve and Sam had, tabling the details of what Stark’s daughter just saw moments ago. More discussions were coming up and any between him and her would have to wait. Until…what was increasingly looking like a long time. “You look like you’ve got just what we need to sit through the General’s lecture. God knows how Bruce dealt with him all those years ago.”

“From what I heard, it’s not Bruce who dealt with him, but rather our missing green muscle man who loves to smash.”

“You need any help carrying that?”

“Nope! I’ve got this. I earned these intern muscles and I’m going to use them.”

Besides the General, it seems Tony is the last to arrive. Steve changed his shirt to a navy long-sleeved number, and now sits at the far end of the table. Sam, rather than sit, appears as if he’s more comfortable standing for this meeting. Natasha and Wanda have taken seats on opposite sides of the table and are chatting quietly when Darcy spots them. Other Avenger, The Vision is somewhere even Darcy doesn’t want to guess. And Rhodey always has meetings with other generals that he often disappears to. 

The Stark daughter smiles warmly at them all when she enters the room. What sits on her tray smells heavenly and she is all to happy to distribute.

“Here Steve,” she starts with Captain America himself. “I made you something with a shot of caramel that I think you’re going to like.” She hands him the coffee; he has a hard time resisting her open face, so he gives her a small smile in return.

“Sam, I got you a refill. Natasha, hero of my heart and slayer of my nightmares, something strong and hot...with something special and spicy. And, I made just about the warmest tea so smooth it could be made from pure sunshine for my girl Wanda.” Darcy gives them each their drinks without spilling a drop, the fruits of her labors.

Tony eyes the one remaining mug on her tray. “So this last one’s for me, right?”

“As if! That would be mine, o-father-dear.” And to stress her point, she starts to walk out. But at the last second, she turns back and hands it to him, kissing him on the cheek as she does. “Play nice,” she whispers. Only then does she finally back out of this tres important meeting for Avengers only, no civilians. Darcy Lewis Stark, a civilian? Ha!

However, sometime later, simply waiting for the thing to end is not enough. The young woman spins around in her dad’s chair, head back, and hair almost touching the floor. Until that begins to make her dizzy. After that, she leaves his office behind and she paces. Down the halls: wondering if she should take the chance and go in. It’s not like she hasn’t been at the “war” tables before. Then again: maybe she better not. 

Oh, come on! She really just needs a good excuse. Maybe...refresh the caffeinated nectar of the gods! Now there’s an excuse! Having reached her decision, Darcy turns right and heads straight on down the hallway for the conference room at the end.

But just as she reaches it, the door swings open and Darcy makes herself flat against the wall, hopefully out of the way.

Captain America stomps past.

“Steve?...” she breathes.

As the door slowly swings shut behind him, Darcy hears her father say, “Let him go.” The door shuts and no one follows Steve.

Without hesitation, Darcy follows him. 

He takes the first door around the corner that he sees; it’s the door to a stairwell and he methodically goes down. Eventually he stops a few floors down to lean on the rail. When he stops, so does the brunette following him, at the floor he started from. She glances down between the staircases to quietly observe a man struggling internally.

For a few minutes, Darcy simply watches. There is only one thing on her mind as she has come to this point. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out an older cellphone. Scrolling through, she thumbs over Bucky’s name. But she’s still so angry. But she wants him safe. Darcy starts to make her way down the stairs to where Steve is. She goes slow, but not quietly so that Steve knows she is coming. When she reaches him, she stops on the step just above him. Then she pulls another out of her pocket.

“Here. They’re two burner phones. Not even Stark tech can trace. I don’t even know the numbers, never took the time to memorize them. …You’re going after Bucky, right? I think you’ll need em. Maybe one for you, and one for, Sam.”

Where do the two of them go from here? “Why are you doing this?” he can’t help but ask.

She hesitates. And he sees something in her eyes.

“I like your perfect teeth.” She walks back up the stairs. “Be careful, Steve.”  
__________________________

Tony sips something amber colored, sitting at the edge of the roof next to his grown daughter.

Darcy pulls the sweater she wears tighter to keep out the night chill, and leans on her dad’s arm.

“You swore no one would ever get Iron Man, dad. Especially not the government.”

“Times have changed. We’ve seen so much more than I could have ever imagined back in those days. ...I’ve changed.”

“I know you have.”

It’s not until later that night that anyone realizes Steve, Sam, the wings, and the shield are gone.

________________________

Whatever befell the Avengers training compound after Steve and Sam’s “breakout”, is lifted a few days later when all hell breaks loose around Darcy. She chances a peak outside her bedroom door, early that morning; she’s still in her pajamas as she sticks her head just outside the frame for a sweeping glance. No one is yelling “Fire! Fire!”, but there is so much noisy, frantic activity coming from around the corners. Darcy almost expects a harried SI employee to come rushing down the hallway, important papers flying behind them in their wake. She creeps back inside and shuts her door.

The young woman is grateful that she had chosen to stay at the compound, a choice not made because of Bucky wanting her to stay in New York. Though, he had also told her to watch over Steve, and with that particular man gone, she was even less doing what Bucky wanted of her. Darcy had chosen to stay because her dad had chosen to stay.

Now, though, she is not going to waste another minute in not knowing.

She has a bag packed and by the door for a quick getaway, has had it there since the day she arrived, somethings never change. Even with all of this activity, she is prepared to respond to it. She showers, because she has no idea if she’ll get a chance to again sometime soon, brushes her teeth because she has awful morning breath and it helps wake her up, and grabs an extra taser for extra oomph. She also nicks a muffin from the cafeteria on her way out. 

‘Eeney, meeney, miney, mo,’ she picks the biggest jet. Of the three. Three. (They were supposed to have four, but had yet to find the one Hulk stole.) Being so big (the jet, not the Hulk), it’s fairly easy for Darcy to find a good hiding space aboard that is away from everything: activity, noise, sight. She makes herself comfortable in the dark. The light of her customized StarkPad the only thing to focus on. What she finds is that it looks like they’ve discovered where Steve and his crew may be headed next. That, and that Steve found Bucky; they are traveling together. But then Darcy sees some more information, alarming information. HYDRA is following close behind. The question is: are the people here gearing up to go after Steve or to prevent a possible ambush? 

She doesn’t have long to ponder the question because she hears Iron Man board the jet. Senses other Avengers. Then the jet takes off.

Darcy doesn’t know how long it will take them to get to where they are headed, so she passes the time playing a couple of games on her StarkPad, pinning a view things, and scrolling through Instagram until eventually she gets bored. About fifteen minutes before their ETA, she decides she has had enough. She heads out of her hiding spot and onto the main deck, making her presence known.

“Darcy?” Tony is quite alarmed to see his daughter aboard the Avengers jet.

“Hey all,” she waves to Natasha, the Vision, and Rhodey.

“What are you doing?! How did you get here? I thought you were still sleeping in your room.” He turns over the controls to Natasha to confront Darcy. 

“I heard the ruckus. You’re going after Steve, right? Let me help.”

“Hell no.”

“Why? Because HYDRA’s going to be there?” He looks at her. Rhodey raises an eyebrow. “All I’m asking is to stand as lookout.”

“You have no idea what these men are capable of.”

Darcy keeps her mouth shut for that one. If he only knew.

“We land. We depart. I use autopilot and FRIDAY to send you back home.”

“You’ll need all the eyes you can get,” she stubbornly replies. “I’ll be out of the way, well hidden. If none of you can even realize I’m on the same jet as you, HYDRA won’t be able to find me.”

Natasha, from the cockpit, puts in her two cents. “Let her, Tony. I’ll get her set up and she can use your secure transmission feed to report to us. You can even have FRIDAY monitor her.” 

“Just because they started you young, doesn’t mean I’ll let her do the same.”

“Dad, quit being an ass. You’re out numbered. And I’d ignore you anyway.”

Suddenly, the jet lands at its destination. The airport.

“You put her someplace safe, or by god, Natasha, even Fury won’t be able to put you back together.” Tony’s faceplate goes down and Iron Man blasts out of the jet. War Machine and the Vision follow.

After setting her up in a place she deems perfect, Natasha leaves Darcy with a brutal glare and, “Stay the hell out of trouble.”

From her vantage point, Darcy can clearly see what is about to go down. But she can’t focus on it. She should be zeroed in on her dad...or Bucky. But something hums higher and higher in her lungs and buzzes stronger and strong in her muscles. She has to look around, to see everything but the people she knows as family. Or someone is going to lose.

The two “teams” clash. Darcy isn’t distracted. Though her heart would tell you that that is a lie.

Then she glimpses what she is searching for: shadows, multiple shadows in a distinct pattern. HYDRA has arrived. Darcy, on instinct at this point, goes down to meet them.

“I thought I smelled fried chicken,” she quips at the masked leader, a man once known as Brock Rumlow, but is now feared as Crossbones.

“Look, they sent a girl to do a superhero’s job,” he quips back.

He wants to ignore her and focus on her all at the same time. He sends his men to the far wall. Darcy glimpses them setting charges out of the corner of her eye. So it’s a surprise and a distraction they are hoping for, separate the team even more so than they already are.

Darcy goes in low. Crossbone’s fist meets the ground just where her head was moments before. She knocks into his side and gets in a kidney shot. He flinches out of the hit; Darcy takes the moment to get away behind him. Crossbones kicks out. He makes contact, but Darcy blocks with two arms. They separate after that.

“So, he’s taught you some of his moves,” Crossbones smirks, sending chills down her spine. “I can’t wait until we get him back, wipe him, and have him use all of his most ‘fun’ moves on your fragile, weak body. Then we’ll wipe him and have him do it all over again.”

Angry, Darcy finally gets in a shot with her taser, but her opponent is dull to it and now she’s in serious trouble. Rumlow grabs her by the hair.

“Ready to know pain?”

Then he tosses her towards the wall with the charges, just after they go off. It explodes into a large hole and she is pulled outside; her body rolls down the tarmac.

The young woman lands at the feet of the Winter Soldier. He wastes no time in picking her up, carefully, wipes off dust and debris, and then he frowns at the myriad of bloody cuts adorning her, the tears in her leggings and jacket.

It’s important to her what happens to her next. She wants to be unphased in order to continue on, so she gets mad. “He threw me through a wall!!!” Darcy grits. “And I bruise like a peach!”

“You’re lucky he didn’t blow you up with that wall, Doll.”

Darcy looks into his eyes. “Back to Doll, huh?”

He grunts. She senses the Bucky smile in there somewhere.

“You missed me.”

“Maybe…”

Their reunion is interrupted by the outpouring of HYDRA men from the blasted hole, Crossbones in the lead. The men start shooting, some aiming for Darcy and Bucky. They are quickly, easily deterred by the Winter Soldier and his gun.

“You better run!” an indignant at this point Darcy shouts as some flee to regroup. “He almost shot me!” she tells her companion.

“You did tempt him.” He’s distracted by her, in a good way.

“Well someone should tell HYDRA to cool it.”

“You have. Several times.”

“Oh, right.”

But the shooting and the fighting continues, now that some of the men were able to regroup. It’s noisy and dangerous, chaos raises the dust. Bucky pulls Darcy close into the circle of one arm while he picks off HYDRA with the other. Only one way out. 

Eventually, somehow working in sync, but not together. What is left of the Avengers get the upper hand and Rumlow is forced to retreat with the few men he has left.

Steve immediately goes to follow, his team aren’t far behind.

Tony, however, charges a repulsor.

“Alright, Barnes. Time to let the girl go.”

Captain America looks back. “Tony, we have to go after them. Before they go underground again. Now is not the time to be fighting.”

“Your assassin buddy over there has my daughter and I’m not letting anyone go anywhere until he gets his weaponized mitts off of her.”

With a metal arm still around her, Darcy Stark calmly says to her father, “Dad, it’s fine. He was just protecting me.”

“Really? Because what I see is the Winter Soldier using you as a human shield.”

“Bullshit. Bullets aren’t getting past this guy.”

Somewhere along the way, he’d taken off his helmet. He scowls at her. “He is a weapon. Every bit of him. Particularly that part.”

“It’s just an arm!”

“Let her go Barnes and I promise not to kill you.”

“Dad!”

“Stay out of this Darcy. You really don’t know what this man is capable of.”

Darcy pauses and takes a breath. Time to face the music: her father, Steve, Bucky… “James would never hurt me,” she starts. She has to take another moment. Her heart and her brain are playing catchup to one another. They reach the same conclusion at the same time and her breath stops. “And I do know him. Because, because I … love him…”

Darcy looks at Bucky and suddenly the truth is the moment and the moment is the truth. Something fragile and strong all at the same time.

Bucky starts to reach out, and his fist clenches.

“No!” is Tony’s reaction. And he fires.

But Steve tries to intervene. His shield meets the blast and his knocked off balance. It flies too quickly to be stopped. In the end, War Machine is brought down.

“Rhodey!”

Darcy steps away from Bucky, towards her dad’s fallen best friend, her surrogate uncle. She’s closer to team Iron Man now.

Steve’s shield comes back but the damage is done.

The force of Tony’s glare makes Wanda throw up a barrier. Darcy is on the side of her father, just a few steps away from Bucky on the other side. The Vision crowds her back, a wordless command from her father.

Something, anything… Why is this happening?

“Is he alright?” Darcy asks.

Her dad doesn’t reply.

Steve’s team is moving away, leaving. They are running away. Bucky hesitates and Darcy’s eyes meet his.

Her father says something now.

“He killed them, Darcy. He killed my parents. Your grandparents.”

Darcy freezes. She looks back at her father. Tries to see past his stone wall of a visage. She can’t...

“But that’s…” she breathes. Then she starts to look down and away. “the reason…” finally, her eyes meets Bucky’s again, “mom…”

The Vision grabs her hand and Bucky flees her eyes.

_____________________

They’re back at the tower now. Rhodey’s being tended to by Tony’s finest doctors and then some. It appears that father and daughter finally have some time to talk, under awful circumstances. They just have to meet one another.

Darcy’s in a locker room, sitting on the tile floor, when her father finds her.

“I didn’t want--couldn’t be anywhere common. Memories, you know?” she offers. “Any word on Rhodey?”

Tony shakes his head, taking a minute to breath; then he sits down next to his daughter.

“Was he what you wanted to tell me? Why you came back after all this time?”

She nods.

“What the hell, Darcy?” he sighs.

“After London and Natasha dumped all of SHIELD’s files on the net, I needed to figure things out. Maybe take a break from Jane. And I wanted to do some digging. James...we ran into each other going after some of the same intel. I knew I could get even more if I stuck with him, so we made some sort of deal. We’ve destroyed HYDRA bases together, dad. Brought information out of the dark. Protected one another.”

“And then what? Did he chase you off?”

“I made a mistake.”

“Did he hurt you?”

She looks directly at him. “Never.”

He meets her gaze. “I need to go after him.”

Darcy sighs this time. Her shoulders drop and she looks away. Then she goes for something behind her. She hands it to Tony. “I know.” It’s a tablet with a set of blinking coordinates on the screen. “I gave Steve some burner phones when he left. Told him they couldn't be tracked by Stark Tech. ...I’m not Stark Tech.”

He doesn't say thanks. They don’t hug. He stands up and starts to leave.

“Don’t,” Darcy says, “don’t do anything you’ll regret.”

______________________

“FRIDAY, give me a live feed but don’t let my dad know I am watching.”

Darcy watches from her dad’s lab, projected on the wall is what the Iron Man suit sees and hears. He’s landed somewhere cold and is now confronting Steve and Bucky. The brunette woman holds her breath.

“So was I,” says Tony.

Suddenly, Darcy sees something in Steve Roger’s eyes that scares her. For the first time, someone sees desperation in Captain America’s eyes.

Darcy is frantic as she reaches for the phone. Jane picks up after one ring. “Jane! Please tell me Thor is with you!”

“Darcy? What-”

“Please, I don’t have time. I need Thor. Now.”

Bright lights blind her. She blinks. Blinks against the lights again.

“DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!”

**Author's Note:**

> OMG, if there are any errors, please let me know and I'll try and fix them. Maybe a sequel? Prequel? Someday? Ugh, I agonized over how to end it. So I ended with agony. Which is likely how the movie with end.


End file.
